Tag: escape

By Caleb Hutton

BELLINGHAM — A man ran away from Bellingham Municipal Court after he informed the judge his bail was set too high, police said.

Michael Ronald William Ackerman, 21, was in court at 11:20 a.m. for a domestic violence no-contact order case. When the judge told him his bail would be set at $2,000, Ackerman contended he wouldn’t be able to post bond, said Bellingham police spokesman Mark Young.

Officers were en route to the courthouse, so they could escort Ackerman to jail, when the would-be inmate ran out of the courtroom, Young said. At the time, police radioed the suspect had possibly tried to escape by bicycle, but Young didn’t see anything about a bike in the police report.

Ackerman was found hiding behind a house in the 2400 block of F Street, a few blocks away. He was booked into jail on the original charges: two counts of violating an anti-harassment order.

He has two ongoing Superior Court cases, one where he’s charged with buying heroin and another where he’s charged with possessing a glass pipe with methamphetamine residue on it.

Ackerman also pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery when he was 17 years old. According to court records, he stole a schoolmate’s wallet, with $480 and debit cards inside, by threatening to hit him with a rock.

(Disclaimer on the map: I don’t know the alleged route Ackerman took.)

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